immigration

Sen. Russell Pearce was the driving force behind the immigration reform package that has once again put Arizona in the national spotlight. But he wouldn't have been able to get it passed without the help of several people who either supported S1070 or moved out of its way.

Pearce, a veteran lawmaker who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, had a lot of tools at his disposal to ratchet up the pressure on people to support his bill, but none was more powerful than public opinion.

Sen. Russell Pearce’s battles with Arizona’s business community over immigration policy have become legendary, but the Mesa Republican this year secured a ceasefire with the state’s largest business association by agreeing to remove one of the five major components that ...

Biggs changed the section allowing civil suits against governments and agencies that use sanctuary policies to require the courts to award legal fees to those entities if they prevail in their lawsuits. Another provision was added to protect Child Protective Service workers and emergency medical technicians from legal action as a result of the bill.

Whether due to the absence of Janet Napolitano or the diligence of Russell Pearce, several important factions of Arizona’s law enforcement community abandoned their resistance to the provisions included in S1070 and allowed it to coast through the Legislature.